Install Proton-GE on Ubuntu Linux for Steam

Developed by Valve, Proton is a compatibility layer for Microsoft Windows games to run on Linux-based operating systems from within the Steam Client.

Proton-GE is a fork of ValveSoftware Proton. Maintained by Thomas Crider, a Red Hat Engineer, these custom Proton-GE builds include the most recent releases of vanilla WINE, FFmpeg enabled for FAudio by default, and all of Proton's patches ported over to be applied to Wine, as well as Wine-staging and VKD3D.

Proton-GE may offer a better Linux gaming experience with newer game titles but also keep in mind this is an unofficial build not associated with Valve — use at your own risk.

HowTo install Proton-GE on Ubuntu Linux for Steam should be similar on other Linux Distributions.

Step 1

Visit the Proton-GE-Custom page on GitHub.

Step 2

Download the tar archive (file with .tar.gz) from the latest release page.

Step 3

Confirm this folder exists on your PC, if not then create it:  ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/

Step 4

Open file manager, move the download into the folder listed above, then right click the tar archive file and "Extract Here".

Step 5

Start or restart Steam if it's already open, this will cause Steam Play to refresh the listing with the new Proton-GE version.

Step 6

Right click on your game, go to Properties, Compatibility and check the box "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" then select the version from the drop-down list.

Updating Proton-GE

Once a newer version of Proton-GE is released, you may add it following this same process. Keep or remove versions as required, just be sure to adjust your game compatibility as outlined in Step 6.

There are also scripts to aid this manual process, but these go beyond the scope of this Linux Gaming HowTo.